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Best for: Reverse engineering a binary when you need a decompiler and cannot pay for IDA

Best for: Students and hobbyists learning reverse engineering on x86 binaries

Free and open source under Apache 2.0, released by the NSA.

Free for non-commercial use; paid IDA Home and IDA Pro editions add more features and commercial rights.

• A genuinely capable decompiler producing C-like output, free and open source
• Very wide processor instruction set and executable format support
• Built for teams, with shared projects and version tracking
• Extensible with Java or Python, and scriptable for automated analysis

• Same core disassembler as the commercial IDA
• Includes a decompiler for x86 and x86-64
• Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux

• The project warns that some versions have known security vulnerabilities
• Java-based, and the interface shows it
• A steep learning curve even for people who know assembly
• Distributed as a portable archive rather than an installer, and needs a JDK

• Not licensed for commercial use
• Only x86 and x86-64 are supported
• Decompilation runs in the cloud and needs a connection

• Official website
• Full listing and sources

Sources for Ghidra

• github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra

Catalog checked September 21, 2026

• Official website
• Full listing and sources

Sources for IDA Free

• hex-rays.com/ida-free

Catalog checked September 23, 2026